LEADERSHIP DECISION-MAKING: AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF THE VROOM AND YETTON MODEL

Despite the common belief that greater worker participation in decision-making in industry will increase productivity and worker job satisfaction, the empirical evidence has been most contradictory. As a result, theories have been developed which now suggest that the degree of participation should depend on the particular problem or situation facing the leader. For the practising manager the problem has been the identification of the situation and the subsequent selection of an appropriate decision method. One answer to this problem is the Vroom and Yetton model which gives explicit directions to the leader as to how to categorize the problem and select the appropriate decision method. This paper describes our research to examine the external validity of this model. The sites chosen for the research were forty-seven owner-operated, small, non-unionized, franchised firms, where the leaders had the power and authority to effect organizational outcomes. On these various sites, there was relatively high similarity with regard to the technology employed, tasks performed, number of levels of hierarchy and the external environments. It was found that those leaders who were in high agreement with the Vroom and Yetton model had workers with higher productivity and higher satisfaction with supervision than those leaders who were in low agreement with the model. These findings give strong support for the Vroom and Yetton model. The implication of these findings on the training and selection of managers, and on further research, are discussed.     

THE EFFECTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING

Information technology (IT) may be defined as computer-based technology for the storage, accessing, processing and communication of information. Many writers have suggested that the use of IT should improve strategic decisions and have developed a number of propositions about the effects of IT on strategic decision making. However, no study has yet addressed the specific effects of IT on major phases of this process. Using Mintzberg, Raisinghani and Theoret's (1976, ‘The structure of unstructured decision processes’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 21, 2, 246–75) strategic decision-making model, this study assessed the effects of IT on the major phases of the process through an intensive examination of eight decisions in four companies. the results of the study provide new information on the specific ways IT improves decision-making efficiency and effectiveness at each stage of the strategic decision process.     

Implicit leadership in an intercultural context: theory extension and empirical investigation

Prior literature highlights that subordinates' identification with their leader is important for leader success. This study explores new mechanisms of implicit leadership and their effects on identification by subordinates. Using data from two sources – subordinates from five regional clusters and expatriate leaders – this study reveals that a leader's underfulfilment of subordinates' expectations of leadership harms their leader identification. Moreover, simple fulfilment of subordinates' expectations toward leadership does not affect their identification; to do so requires overfulfilment. Furthermore, the effects of underfulfilment strengthen with greater collectivism and low power distance, whereas overfulfilment effects are mitigated by these cultural dimensions.     

基于决策树技术的信息化项目文化冲突研究

企业在信息化项目实施的各个环节中普遍存在各种各样的冲突．对冲突进行有效识别，依据冲突类型选择合适的对策．是降低项目风险、实现项目效益的关键。信息化项目的高复杂性、高风险性对项目的冲突管理提出了较高的要求．目前对信息化项目中的冲突管理研究较多集中于管理理念和理论分析层面。结合文化冲突特点的实证研究较少。决策树方法是数据挖掘及数据分析中广泛应用的技术。具有清晰直观、易于解释的优点。本文通过决策树C5．0算法，尝试运用数据挖掘技术进行文化冲突研究。通过对项目中6种冲突管理决策类型的分析，提供了依据冲突情景选择应对策略的分类决策方法。实验证明，该方法可行。本研究为我国企业在信息化项目中遇到的冲突问题。提供了应对方法，同时也扩展了数据挖掘决策树技术的应用领域。     

“Why did I do this?”: Understanding leadership behavior through a dynamic five‐factor model of leadership

Leadership theories referring to complex adaptive system theory (CAS) describe leadership as a dynamic process of interdependent, cooperating agents. However, research on leadership behavior focuses mainly on the leader as an influencing, active agent. This article offers a different perspective by focusing on factors that influence leadership behavior. A dynamic five‐factor model of leadership is introduced, which identifies (1) the leader's individual competence, (2) the group, (3) the organization, (4) the context, and (5) the immediate situation as all influencing factors on leadership behavior. To address the problem of the procedural nature of leadership behavior, the dynamic five‐factor model is combined with a scenario‐based approach. The scenario approach focuses on situational developments in a given context, whereby a previous situation influences a leader's behavior in the subsequent situation. By integrating the dynamic five‐factor model into a scenario approach, one can understand a leader's behavior in its procedural nature. The practical usability of the dynamic five‐factor model and the scenario approach was assessed in a leadership development program with 81 military officers. Structured feedback from participants indicated that the model and the approach were perceived as helpful and relevant for understanding leadership behavior.     

When is escalation of commitment unstoppable in group settings? An iterative economic modeling approach to unveil the dark side of group decision-making

Escalation of commitment (EOC) has been usually studied from a psychological lens, and only recently have scholars approached EOC from an economic perspective. We contribute to this by focusing on iterative decision-making in group settings with a game theory approach. We study how the group members' strategic interaction may result in continuing failing courses of action. Drawing on the Byzantine generals' problem, our model considers an iterative decision-making process where committee participants vote based on private information to escalate or not. Our article demonstrates that if decision-makers reset their beliefs based on the committee's previous decision, then EOC becomes perpetual.     

Managing predecessors' shadows in executive transitions

New leaders inevitably face comparisons with predecessors. After a short time these comparisons usually give way to judgments about the leader's performance. Occasionally, however, the presence of the predecessor continues to be felt long after the new leader has taken charge. The metaphor of a “shadow” cast by a predecessor is used to describe the process whereby memories of a former leader play a dominant role in shaping current behavior in the organization. A case is analyzed in which a burdensome shadow impeded a new leader's efforts to take charge of a state agency. Counterprojective group techniques helped the new leader and his staff lift the shadow and form a more productive working relationship. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Market Entry,Capacity Choice,and Product Differentiation in Duopolistic Competition under Uncertainty

This paper examines the impact of pre‐emptive competition for a leader's position on the investment strategies for market entry, production capacities, and product differentiation. In the absence of pre‐emptive competition, the leader's production capacity exceeds the follower's, and the leader earns excess returns. In contrast, in its presence, the leader's production capacity decreases below the follower's, and the follower's investment value exceeds the leader's when the follower enters the market. These results suggest the new insight that pre‐emptive competition provides the opportunity for the follower to expedite investing and to enhance investment value by capitalizing on the leader's insufficient capacity. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

囚徒困境及其破解策略在日常工作中的应用举例

博弈论就是研究互动决策的理论,主要感兴趣的是其胜负主要取决于谋略智能的对抗性局势,而囚徒困境则博弈论中的经典模型之一。该模型深刻揭示了个人理性与集体理性的冲突。在囚徒困境中,每个人都会根据自己的利益做出决策,但是最后的结果却是集体遭殃。文章以博弈论中的经典模型"囚徒困境"为工具分析解剖日常生活工作中的若干热点和难点问题,并提出相应的破解策略。     

A framework for strategic decision making and performance among Chinese managers

This study develops an integrative model that explains the relationship between Chinese culture, managers' strategic decision making (SDM) processes, and organizational performance. For the study 1200 participants were randomly selected from a business club's company register, resulting in 204 valid respondents. The results highlighted two significant SDM paths used by managers: (1) the cognitive-speed path, which suggested that Overseas Chinese managers (the Chinese who live outside of Mainland China) focus on the big picture, draw analogies from past experiences, and use extensive networks to reduce the duration of the decision process; and (2) the social-political path which shows that Overseas Chinese managers focus on collective interests, strive to maintain harmony, and to save face while using a collaborative style to handle conflict; this approach reduces dysfunctional political behavior, while reinforcing the decision team's focus on common goals. From these results we concluded that a speedier decision making process (based on intuition, experience, and networks) accompanied by the appropriate use of political behavior (that created harmony, through a hierarchical structure, during conflict management) in the Overseas Chinese managers' strategic decision making process could positively influence organizational performance.     

The interactive effects of leader–member exchange,gender and spouse's gender role orientation on work interference with family conflict

Based on social support and gender role theories, we examined the direct and interactive effects of leader–member exchange, gender and spouse's gender role orientation on work–family conflict. Survey data were collected from matched dyads from 185 dual-earner couples in Sri Lanka. The results show that leader–member exchange is negatively related to work interference with family. There is also support for crossover effects among couples such that individuals with spouses who have a traditional gender role orientation experience greater work interference with family conflict. Finally, there is a three-way interaction such that a spouse's gender role orientation moderates the relationship between leader–member exchange and work interference with family conflict differently for men and women.     

财务管理神经网络智能决策支持系统的研究

财务管理决策支持系统(简称DSS)是辅助各级决策者实现财务管理的科学决策系统。它主要通过人机交互的方式,利用大量财务数据和众多模型来实现科学性的管理。神经网络是一种非线性复杂网络系统,它主要由许多类似于神经元的处理单元组合而成。将财务管理和神经网络和决策支持系统结合可以实现财务系统的自适应并行联想推理及数据开采的自动化,使财务管理、决策、执行更加科学化、规范化、智能化。     

Strategic management of worker health,safety, and environmental issues in Mexico's Maquiladora industry

Conflict arising from differences in business practices, standards, values, and norms guiding behavior are inherent in international business. These conflicts are evident in Mexico's maquiladora industry, particularly relating to issues of worker health, safety, and environment. This article extends a model of conflict management; illustrates the model's dimensions with case study examples; discusses strategic human resource management implications of the model's various outcomes; offers recommendations for managing worker health, safety, and environment issues; and identifies directions for future research. © 1993 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

SOME EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE RELATED TO THE CASE OF THE SUPERORDINATE INTEGRATOR

This empirical study seeks to characterize processes of integration in complex organizations. The need for integration is examined initially in terms of the ideas of Weber, Pugh et al., Child, Lawrence and Lorch, and Pettigrew. Subsequently integration is related to a system's view of the problem of organizational control that underlines how the environment tends to both ‘fractionalize’ and ‘factionalize’ an organizational decision-making system. The integrative task is then represented in terms of processes that seek to effect stable combinations of interrelationships between differntiated sub-units. The evidence is presented in the form of a series of cases and incidents obtained during a one-year participant observation study in a large multi-national company. The research aims to identify ‘contingency’ guidelines in the design of integrative mechanisms by exploring differences in: the characteristics of integrative sub-systems, the organizational environments in which they operated and the kinds of (intergroup) decision conflicts in which they were engaged. This exploratory study suggests that important conditions include: the identification of the integrative unit members, how ‘ill-structured’ the decision problems encountered are and the degree of support for integrators that is perceived to be provided by senior management.     

The mediating role of speed in the global sourcing decision process

The principal aim of this study is to provide theory and testing to elucidate the role of decision-maker's decision process and speed during the global sourcing decision-making process (GSDP). In order to achieve this goal, we examine the behavior of a sample of 202 decision-makers belonging to Italian SMEs in the manufacturing sector. Our main finding suggests that faster decisions during the GSDP process lead to superior financial and non-financial performance of the selected supplier. Moreover, we find support for dual processing theory wherein rationality and intuition of the GSDP are associated with increased supplier performance both directly and through their effects on decision speed. Results are discussed in terms of the GSDP, SME and strategic decision-making literatures and practical implications for managers in SMEs.     

A nonlinear simultaneous probit-model for the investigation of decision-making processes: modelling the process of setting up a family in partnerships

This article proposes an approach for modelling the interactive influences of two (or more) actors in decision-making processes. We use a nonlinear simultaneous probit-model and show how the problem of identification for estimating the relative effects of the actors can be solved. The formal model will be applied to examine the decision-making process for setting up a family in partnerships. We model a trivariate distribution consisting of the wifes’ desire to have a child or disposition toward the generative decision, the husbands’ disposition and the joint generative decision. We show how the parameter can be used to assess the relative importance of both partners’ dispositions for the decision, the reciprocal influence of both partners’ dispositions within the interaction process, and the relevance of both partners’ biographical contexts in relation to their own disposition as well as to that of the partner. The analysis is based on a three-stage estimation strategy which is implemented in MECOSA 3 and we use data from the Bamberger married couple panel.     

THE EFFECTS OF FORMALIZATION ON DEPARTMENTS OF A MULTI-HOSPITAL SYSTEM*

This study tests five propositions concerning the relationships between formalization, technological complexity and organizational performance. Propositions are based on Hage's axiomatic theory, but reinterpreted in terms of Lawrence and Dyer's readaptation hypothesis. Data were collected by questionnaire from 348 respondents from 92 units of an eight-member government-operated multi-hospital system. Measures were of formalization, complexity, co-ordination, climate for change, quality of care and morale. In general, more support was found for the readaptation hypothesis than for the traditional hypotheses of the Hage theory. In nursing units, formalization tended to have small, negative effects, and management decision-making should probably aim to loosen up structures. In non-nursing (clinical services) units, effects were greater and largely positive, suggesting the need for tightening up structures in order to promote readaptation.     

Manufacturing strategy implementation and cost management systems effectiveness

The fit between manufacturing strategy and the use of cost management systems that could effectively support a firm's information needs in strategic and operational decision-making is prerequisite for a firm's ability to attain desired objectives in its value chain. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the use of just-in-time and electronic data interchange systems, as an important dimension of a firm's manufacturing strategy, and the perceptions of top financial officers about the effectiveness of cost management systems in supporting strategic and operational decision needs. The results for the research hypothesis, which was examined using a sample of 604 manufacturing organizations in the USA, provided some support for the argument that perceptions of effectiveness of a firm's CMS can be a valid indicator of how well is the CMS designed to support strategic and operational decision needs that are necessary for the implementation of a firm's manufacturing strategy.     

The presence of a feedback-seeking role model in promoting employee feedback seeking: a moderated mediation model

Abstract

Despite an increasing number of studies that show a positive relationship between the supportiveness of a feedback source and feedback seeking, little is known about the impact of supervisors’ demonstration of feedback-seeking behavior on promoting employees seeking feedback from them. In addition, although previous studies have shown that feedback seeking is an interactive process and is emotionally charged, to our knowledge, no studies have investigated the role that the source’s emotion regulation played in the feedback seeker’s seeking frequency. The present article developed a moderated mediation model to fill this void and tested it with data from a sample of 215 supervisor–subordinate dyads from China. We hypothesized and found that supervisors’ feedback seeking from subordinates were positively related to subordinates’ feedback seeking from supervisors, mediated by the perceived value and cost of the feedback seeking. The results also supported the moderating roles of supervisors’ emotion regulation in the mediation model.